Cakes Covered In Live Flowers?

AHey everyone. I have my first wedding cake order coming up and the customer is asking for a 4 tier wedding cake with the top and middle tiers covered in live roses. I dont want to just poke a bunch of holes into my precious cakes. How else can I get the whole cake covered without destroying the tiers? (I know the flowers need water picks first and are not supposed to go directly into a cake) She doesn't want the gumpaste roses because they are out of her budget.

Also do I have her order the roses or do I order them? About how many will be needed to cover an 6 and 10 inch cake?

As to who orders the flowers...she should definitely pay for them (or you do, but add the cost + your time spent getting them into her cake price), but if she wants the roses to match other wedding flowers, you or her should probably speak to her florist to make sure you're on the same page. I guess to work out how many would depend on the type of rose she wants. They come in all sorts of sizes, so you'd have to know the diameter of the flower, and work out how many rows high and how many will fit round the circumference of your cakes. And I would order a few extra, just in case any of them are a bit ugly or brown or something.

Just wondering if they are roses, maybe you could cut the stem right back to the flower and stick them to the cake with a blob of RI? Start at the bottom so the ones above can support themselves on the ones below while the RI dries?

If not, and if you get no answers on how to attach the flowers (are there no florist type peeps on here?!), could you convince the bride to have those 2 tiers as dummies?